How Would You Do It?https://maryellenwall.com
Gettin' By the Best I Can
Fri, 08 Feb 2019 19:19:38 +0000 en
hourly
1 http://wordpress.com/https://secure.gravatar.com/blavatar/c68c0aeec4cc0ae780b87c5e689cf3c5?s=96&d=https%3A%2F%2Fs0.wp.com%2Fi%2Fbuttonw-com.pngHow Would You Do It?https://maryellenwall.com
Footprints in the Snowhttps://maryellenwall.com/2019/02/08/footprints-in-the-snow/
https://maryellenwall.com/2019/02/08/footprints-in-the-snow/#respondFri, 08 Feb 2019 18:14:47 +0000http://maryellenwall.com/?p=2987I had this wonderful old song on my mind, and though I might share it.

]]>https://maryellenwall.com/2019/02/08/footprints-in-the-snow/feed/0Snow PrintsmaryellenwallFeetprintsMing 010Crazy Maniac About BOOKS!https://maryellenwall.com/2019/01/25/crazy-maniac-about-books/
https://maryellenwall.com/2019/01/25/crazy-maniac-about-books/#respondFri, 25 Jan 2019 19:24:43 +0000http://maryellenwall.com/?p=2978Since I was a we little tyke, I’ve devoured books (I even ate part of one about the 3 Little Kittens). We didn’t have that many around the house so I read Mama’s few (Gone with the Wind and such) including the full set of Golden Encyclopedias. What an education for a single-digit kid!

The Bookmobile stopped by the shopping center we walked to for groceries (Winn-Dixie) and I really had to beg ’em to give me a library card. Oooh, how I treasured that card. They limited me to 3 books for a while, but extended it all the way to 10 after noting my care and fervency. Andre Norton and Arthur C Clarke were early favorites, and cook books – I started cooking all kinds of goodies. History and science were my absolute favorites, and I have the firm belief the Bookmobilers stocked more just for me.

The biggest shock about being on a ship far out to sea in the USNavy was being BOOKLESS but for the few I brought with me. Back in port: Buy more books NOW. I don’t want to neglect the wonder of libraries, it’s just that the school libraries were substandard and the Louisville Free Public Library was way too far away to walk or bike. Yeah, the bus. The bus costs cash and transfers were daunting for a lone youngster.

That’s over 7000 books in my cabin library! Plus a few hundred more elsewhere. And I write some as well! What else can I do but make an attempt sort a few out (including – sigh – duplicates)?

TA DA! a few years ago I started a BOOKSTORE! Old Lady Who?is named after Mama who adored Jimmy Rogers, the Blue Yodeler. It’s an Independent Bookstore among the thousands on Abe Books. I found myself amazed when I realized I hadn’t told any of you about it! Need a book? Give Abe Books a look and maybe do a search for Old Lady Who? I put one of these stickers on each order.

So, problem solved, right? Sell them until I have room to walk. Of course not. Don’t worry, if I need therapy for this obsession, I’ll buy a BOOK on it!

I get up and wrap my hands around my first cup of Caravan black tea and see these giant puffballs falling from the sky! Darned cool, me on the porch with my fuzzy slippers and housecoat on…brrr. The sky is gray because the sun was just coming up. Have a great weekend!

How lovely the sky this morning! Here in Kentucky we go no blizzards nor any thunderous calamities, but we did see the clouds swiftly flying to deliver their might to those unfortunate locations at 20 miles per hour or more.

I see the bright rays piercing the clouds as a fine foretelling of a marvelous year to com, and for Heaven to be shining down upon us. I feel more cozy and happy already.

Shivering, she pulled herself up from the hearth using her cane and put the poker back on its hook. “I shouldn’t ought to have let that burn so low.” She eyed the four logs left, judging whether they’d be enough to get her through the night or not. Nope. Susie wobbled to her overcoat and went out to woodpile on the front porch in the blowing snow and retrieved four more fair-sized ones. She fretted about forgetting to do it in the daylight; she forgot so much anymore.

The fresh logs she’d just loaded in the fireplace still laid there, not wanting to burn. Working the bellows until she got a flame made her sweaty. She thought about taking the darned overcoat off because with two sweaters on it would cut off her circulation but good. Coming down with pneumonia wouldn’t be very smart, though.

Next she knew, she stood at the coatrack with her coat hung. Chilled to the bone, her hand fondled the other coat there, and she wiped the tears from her face. “Stanley, help me out here, will you please?” His camouflaged hunting coat felt so blessedly warm as she buttoned it up. “Yes, Stan, I’ll make us some tea.”

Instead of making the tea, she plopped heavily into the padded kitchen chair by the fire. Staring at the flames, she remembered how Stan would have brought in plenty of wood, and he would have banked it better. He more than once told her she didn’t have a lick of sense and she believed it. That Christmas cactus she’d insisted on getting so many years ago bloomed right on time anyhow, up until he went onward to the pearly gates. Since then, it hadn’t done its duty at all. She angrily remembered the tea and heaved up to put the kettle on the stove. The propane he’d put in heated it up quick and she fixed a little pot of chamomile.

On the way back to her warm seat, she glanced over to the miserable cactus. She stopped, her tensed body falling slack. “Oh Stan, would you look at that!” She gently cradled the bright red blossom and smiled in that contained Mona Lisa way he liked. “Thank you, lover, I’m warm nose to toes now.” She sat and sipped her tea, hugging his coat tightly, feeling his embrace as they watched the fire dance. Merry Christmas.

]]>https://maryellenwall.com/2018/10/30/spooky-woodland-moon/feed/1Morning 005maryellenwallSunset 002Bubble, Bubble! Ferment Without Trouble!https://maryellenwall.com/2018/07/27/bubble-bubble-ferment-without-trouble/
https://maryellenwall.com/2018/07/27/bubble-bubble-ferment-without-trouble/#respondFri, 27 Jul 2018 16:45:03 +0000http://maryellenwall.com/?p=2943I put a batch of Stout and one of Nut Brown Ale last Saturday. I am delinquent with brewing this year, so much going on and so many demands! I have a few cases of bottles to sanitize this weekend in great anticipation of the fermentation being adequately accomplished. Late Spring through early Autumn is the only time I can do a brew as I don’t implement much heating or cooling in the cabin…whatever nature gives me for the most part. Hmmm, I’ll have time to put up a ferment of Porter and a Bitter this weekend after the bottling is done…maybe. We’ll see. It’s gotta last all winter and I do need a way to keep warm.

So I got a late start? Well I did put up two batches of mead (yeah, like the Vikings drank, fermented honey) and have them in the basement snugly aging. One was a classic dry mead and the other has plums in it – that’s got a special name I cannot for the life of me remember at the moment. Megathlin or some such. It was a mess to fool with.

The flavored stuff I’m dubious of, but the dry mead I’ve done before and there is no reason at all for it not to be superb in a year or two. Yes, into the next decade. Got to think ahead, you know. And there’s plenty of space in the basement.